The second war in Western Sahara

When the roar of weapons begins to disturb the tranquility in the region, humanity must worry not only about the dangers that threaten a certain geographical area, but, and above all, about the burden of collective failure that comes from having reached this situation. It is evident that the current situation in Western Sahara, with the start of the second liberation war after 29 years, 2 months and 7 days of cease-fire, is extremely painful due to all the suffering that seeing ourselves in this sad situation will entail. of the return to the warlike hostilities.

The reader unfamiliar with the conflict would legitimately believe that in no way should peaceful avenues be abandoned for the resolution of any conflict. I fully agree with this maxim, that of finding a peaceful solution to a conflict that was fulfilled, on November 14, 45 years after the sad delivery of the territory to Morocco and Mauritania by the colonizing power, the Spain of the last Franco’s government. But it must be understood that it was never the desire of the Sahrawis, who had trusted with goodwill in the diligent work of the UN for 29 years, to resort to arms to claim a legitimate right recognized by international law such as self-determination. In the following lines I will try to outline, very briefly, why we have reached this situation:

-For 16 years Morocco and its main allies, France and Spain, have decided to amputate the self-determination referendum of the body of the 1988 settlement plan, signed by both parties and seconded by the international community, and leave it with the only « member « from the ceasefire. The last agreement that generated a broad consensus among the members of the Security Council was the so-called Baker Plan, consisting of a period of autonomic transition that would lead to the holding of the referendum. This plan was voluntarily accepted by Morocco and represented the umpteenth concession of the Polisario Front to give an opportunity to a peaceful solution. However, the machinery of the Zapatero government, headed by Moratinos, in sync with the Elysee, decided to demolish said plan and force the former UN Secretary General James Baker’s personal envoy to resign and leave office. Spain decided to invest all its diplomatic effort and weight, legitimized by its colonial past, in the words of Bujari Ahmed (El País, 10/25/2004), to modify the Baker Plan « by eliminating it » and convince the rest of its partners to that the only solution is autonomy within the Alawite kingdom.

-This effectively led to a Spanish-French guardianship for Morocco to design, regardless of international legality, a solution consisting of an autonomy, as if the territory were its own, thus giving the go-ahead to what, also according to the The late Saharawi diplomat (El País, 05/07/2005), would legitimize Morocco to continue with its policy « of the principle of variable geometry borders » according to which it can take possession of what is its own and what is not also . Presented the Moroccan proposal in 2007, widely supported by the Zapatero government, the only thing it managed to do was persuade our neighbor to rebel, with unusual arrogance, before a basic principle by means of which humanity overcame the times of the law of the jungle, where the feline with the best claw would destroy any other living being that came into view.

-Thanks to these supports, the southern drug monarchy was fully employed in the politics of the fait accompli of the occupation, and the result was an endless list of human rights violations in the eyes of the UN with astonishing impunity: repression of the peaceful demonstrations, imprisonment and summary trials of activists, the kidnapping of Aminatu Haidar and his subsequent expulsion to Lanzarote in 2009, the dismantling of the Gdeim Izik camp in 2010, the opening of a breach in the separation wall, and the last intervention on 13 November against civilians who protested since October 21 to denounce the inaction of the United Nations.

All these elements, together with the underlying desire of the two European powers to eliminate any possibility of holding the referendum, have strengthened one of the parties to continuously violate the peace accords with impunity. The sum of all these circumstances, therefore, has led us to the current situation: a return to the zero point of the conflict and the vanishing of expectations for peace, 29 years later, to resolve the dispute. It is not the responsibility of the Saharawi people, therefore, to be forced again, after the experience of 16 years (1975-1991), to resort to arms to conquer their legitimate rights. On November 13, shortly before dawn, Morocco threw the first stone while the UN troops watched in amazement the first rays of sunlight that dyed the Western Sahara sky red, all for not recognizing their resounding failure to become respect by not forcing the puerile Moroccan regime, which squirms every time it feels the injection of the vaccine of international legality near the buttock, to comply with the commitments signed in 1991.

Mustapha M-Lamin is secretary of Zemmur, Association of Saharawis in Valencia

El Mundo, 21 nov 2020